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| Websters Internet Cafe :: Forums :: Linux Specific | |||
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 Old Laptop and UNIX/linux |
| Author | Post |
| Glognar |
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 Joined: Mon Feb 20 2006, 03:00 Posts: 20 | So... I'm making a new thread and making a new attempt to use Linux. This time it is the Laptop I wrote about in the chatbox, it is a Dell Latitude CPx, P3 ~750Mhz, 128MB RAM, ATI Rage Mobility GFX-card probably 32MB(in win XP Dell got their own drivers for it, I have not yet found a driver that can be obtained from ATI), Ess Maestro PCI Audio (WDM), 18GB HDD, and I have a Linksys Wierless-G Notebook Adapter WPC54G (PCMCIA card). It is a crappy computer but it runns win XP unexpectedly well. But it is a computer I want to toy around with and one I'm not really going to use for anything so I want to try to get into the Linux world (again). I have tried a few vertions of Ubuntu as it is supposed to be a good and easy dist but it wont even load the installer, the only dist I have actuall got into the machine is slackware (I know, probably not the best dist to start with). But I ran into a problem there too (of course) when I loaded it up for the first time it loaded the kernel and everything that should be loaded (I guess) unfortunally for me the GUI didn't load. I started to read the Slackware Essential book and found out how to configure the X system and so I did but when I fired it up I just got a black screen and the pointer (abe to move it around but it was a "X"). Maybe it all worked as it should, maybe not... I have no idea. But fortunally for me there is a guy around here that's almost an expert on Slackware  Got any advices Handover? | ||
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| Glognar |
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Joined: Mon Feb 20 2006, 03:00 Posts: 20 | I got a small idea about this. If the installation got a graphical menue and stuff does it use the X Window system? if so the laptop might be to old/low on resourses to be able to load it. Because it was only Slackware (of those I tried, I think) which had a textbased installation. | ||
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| Handover Phist |
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   Joined: Sun Feb 19 2006, 12:55 Posts: 117 | Wow, you got in! I only just got the systems back up. Anyhoo, if you use a graphical installer then yeah, it probably uses the Xorg X windowing system. They use the VESA driver which is pretty universal throughout chipsests, but doesn't do anything really fancy like OGL graphics. I use Slackware cause I like it, but it all depends on the chipsets. An old ATI chipset should be fairly happy using the VESA driver, but a system that old is going to chug no matter what. Once you get the install done, try a lightweight window manager like XFCE, IceWM, or Windowmaker (very pretty). If you try to run KDE or Gnome the machine will need swap (you did set up a swap partition, right?). Slackware is a difficult system to learn, but if you decide to learn it, you'll know the guts of every Linux out there with the exception of the SysV style init stuff, which is a pretty simple variation on the BSD style init that Slack uses. Let me know how it's going! | ||
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| Glognar |
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Joined: Mon Feb 20 2006, 03:00 Posts: 20 | okay, will try the other window managers later tonight if I get time. since I have WinXP on the lappy too (because I found out I can play the game Silver on it, it's an old RPG/adventure game that dosn't like newer gfx cards (Gforce 2 and later)) I only have 10G to have Linux on and since all other times I have tried Linux the installer have made all the partitions for me, that bit was kind of tricky. I made / @ ~5G, /home @ ~5G and /swap @ 1G. If this is all wrong or you have a better setup I warmly welcome any sugestions. I know most of the tings in the Linux world are things that you can optimise so much that you need to experiment to find out how things works and fits you best. | ||
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| Glognar |
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Joined: Mon Feb 20 2006, 03:00 Posts: 20 | an little update, been trying out a few dists now (a few years old and new) and havn't had any succes in geting the X window system to run at all, I might add that I tried to update the drivers on the windows side but nothing except the drivers that Windows XP itself installs works. *sigh*  | ||
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